| Title: |
Falls, depression and antidepressants in later life: A large primary care appraisal |
| Authors: |
Kerse, N; Flicker, L; Pfaff, JJ; Draper, B; Lautenschlager, NT; Sim, M; Snowdon, J; Almeida, OP |
| Contributors: |
Baune, B |
| Publisher Information: |
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE |
| Publication Year: |
2008 |
| Collection: |
The University of Melbourne: Digital Repository |
| Description: |
BACKGROUND: Depression and falls are common and co-exist for older people. Safe management of each of these conditions is important to quality of life. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was used to examine medication use associated with injurious and non-injurious falls in 21,900 community-dwelling adults, aged 60 years or over from 383 Australian general practices recruited for the DEPS-GP Project. Falls and injury from falls, medication use, depressive symptoms (Primary Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)), clinical morbidity, suicidal ideation and intent, health status (SF-12 Health Survey), demographic and lifestyle information was reported in a standardised survey. FINDINGS: Respondents were 71.8 years (sd 7.7) of age and 58.4% were women. 24% 11% and 8% reported falls, fall related injury, and sought medical attention respectively. Antidepressant use (odds ratio, OR: 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 95%CI: 1.25, 1.70), questionable depression (5-14 on PHQ OR: 1.32, 95%CI: 1.13, 1.53) and clinically significant symptoms of depression (15 or more on PHQ OR: 1.70, 95%CI: 1.14, 1.50) were independently associated with multiple falls. SSRI use was associated with the highest risk of multiple falls (OR: 1.66, 95%CI: 1.36, 2.02) amongst all psychotropic medications. Similar associations were observed for injurious falls. Over 60% of those with four accumulated risk factors had multiple falls in the previous year (OR: 3.40, 95%CI: 1.79, 6.45); adjusted for other demographic and health factors. INTERPRETATION: Antidepressant use (particularly SSRIs) was strongly associated with falls regardless of presence of depressive symptoms. Strategies to prevent falls should become a routine part of the management of older people with depression. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| ISSN: |
1932-6203 |
| Relation: |
Kerse, N., Flicker, L., Pfaff, J. J., Draper, B., Lautenschlager, N. T., Sim, M., Snowdon, J. & Almeida, O. P. (2008). Falls, depression and antidepressants in later life: A large primary care appraisal. Plos One, 3 (6), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002423.; https://hdl.handle.net/11343/242915 |
| Availability: |
https://hdl.handle.net/11343/242915 |
| Rights: |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 ; CC BY |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.57499743 |
| Database: |
BASE |